Justice News

Albuquerque Man Sentenced to Ten Years for Firearms and Bank Robbery Convictions

ALBQUERQUE – Randy Lee Gwaltney, 46, of Albuquerque, N.M., was sentenced this afternoon to ten years in prison followed by three years of supervised release for his convictions for being a felon in possession of firearms and bank robbery. Gwaltney also was ordered to pay full restitution to the three banks that were the victims of his criminal conduct.

Gwaltney was sentenced based on guilty pleas in two separate cases. The indictment in the first case charged Gwaltney with being a felon in possession of firearms and possession of an unregistered firearm in Valencia County, N.M., on Jan. 19, 2009. According to the indictment, at the time, Gwaltney was prohibited from possessing firearms because he previously had been convicted of a drug trafficking offense and failure to appear in connection with a felony in the Seventh Judicial District Court for the State of New Mexico (Torrance County).

The indictment in the second case charged Gwaltney with robbing three banks in Albuquerque: (1) robbing the Bank of America, located in the Albertson’s supermarket at 4950 Montgomery Blvd. NE, on Dec. 29, 2008; (2) robbing the Bank of America, located in the Albertson’s supermarket at 2801 Eubank Blvd. NE, on Jan. 9, 2009; and (3) the Bank of America, located in the Albertson’s supermarket at 4950 Montgomery Blvd. NE, on Jan. 16, 2009.

On Oct. 3, 2011, Gwaltney entered guilty pleas to the felon in possession charge in the first case and the Dec. 29, 2008 bank robbery charged in the second case. Under the terms of the plea agreement, the remaining counts of the two indictments were dismissed after Gwaltney was sentenced.

The firearms case was investigated by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms& Explosives, the Los Lunas Police Department and the Bosque Farms Police Department. The bank robbery case was investigated by the Albuquerque office of the FBI and the Albuquerque Police Department. Both cases were prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Louis E. Valencia.